The present invention relates generally to the sheet material handling art and, more particularly, to a method of and apparatus for automatically providing fragile sheet articles with separator or buffer sheets.
In the production of certain sheet articles, such as bent glass sheets for use as automotive windshields for example, means are usually provided at the take-off end of an assembly line for removing the finished products one at a time therefrom and depositing the same in a stacked relation on a buck or other suitable storage or transport device for subsequent packaging. Conventionally, a suitable parting agent or protective separator, commonly known as an "interleave", is placed between adjacent sheets to prevent scratching, marring or other damage to the surfaces of the finished glass sheets. While sheets of paper have been widely employed as interleaves, more recent techniques utilize a plastic sheet preferably formed of polystyrene, for example. Customarily, these plastic sheets have been manually inserted in place between adjacent sheets, such manual and arduous operations seriously impairing the efficiency in a mass production operation and adding materially to labor and production costs.